Former spy: Kenya mall attack 'could have been prevented'

Al-Shabaab militant Ikrima is thought to have planned the attack on Kenya's Westgate Mall

Morten Storm is a former informant for the CIA and Danish intelligence service PET

CIA refuses to comment on Storm's claims; PET refuses to confirm or deny knowing him

Editor's note: Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister are writing a book about Morten Storm and his life as a former informant on terrorist groups.

(CNN) -- Western intelligence missed a chance to capture or kill the suspected terrorist thought to be behind the Nairobi mall massacre, according to a former informant for both the CIA and the Danish intelligence service.

Morten Storm, who worked as an informant for five years, had forged a close relationship with the man -- a Kenyan called Ikrima -- who has been responsible for planning attacks inside Kenya for Al-Shabaab.

Storm, a Danish national, told CNN that in March 2012 the Danish intelligence agency PET had offered him one million Danish krone ($200,000) on behalf of the CIA if he could lead them to Ikrima, the target of an unsuccessful operation by US Navy SEALs last month. The SEALs raided an Al-Shabaab compound at Barawe on the Somali coast, but Ikrima escaped.

Storm's told CNN it is possible he might have got wind of the plans had he still been working for Western intelligence. But his relationship with PET and the CIA ended in mid-2012 amid disagreement about a different mission in Yemen.

"I get really frustrated to know that Ikrima had been maybe involved in the Westgate terrorist attack. It frustrates me a lot because it could have been stopped and I'm sad I can't be involved in this."

Relatives of Johnny Mutinda Musango, 48, weep after identifying his body at the city morgue in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday, September 24. Musango was one of the victims of the Westgate Mall hostage siege. Kenyan security forces were still combing the mall on the fourth day of the siege by al Qaeda-linked terrorists.

Ann Gakii reacts at the Nairobi City Mortuary after identifying the body of her father, who was killed in the mall attack on Saturday.

A Kenyan soldier runs through a corridor on an upper floor at the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, on September 24, shortly before an explosion was heard. Sounds of heavy gunfire erupted from the mall Tuesday, even as authorities said they had the building under their control. But four days after Al-Shabaab terrorists stormed the swanky mall, several gunmen -- including snipers -- were still inside, two senior officials said.

Kenyan Defense Forces walk near the mall on Monday, September 23.

Kenyan Defense Forces leave the mall on September 23.

Stephen, center, is comforted by relatives as he waits for the post mortem exam of his father, who was killed in Saturday's attack at the mall.

A Kenyan police officer guards the entrance of a building near the mall on September 23.

A Kenyan security officer takes cover as gunfire and explosions are heard from the mall on September 23.

Heavy smoke rises from the Westgate Shopping Mall on September 23.

Medics take cover behind a tree as gunfire and explosions are heard from the Westgate Mall on September 23.

A Kenyan police security officer runs for cover as heavy smoke rises from the mall on September 23.

A paramedic runs for cover outside the mall on September 23.

People run for cover outside the mall after heavy shooting started on September 23.

Kenyan security forces crouch behind a wall outside the mall on September 23.

Soldiers take cover after gunfire near the mall on September 23.

Kenyan paramilitary police officers patrol the area near the mall on Sunday, September 22.

Soldiers from the Kenya Defense Forces arrive outside the Westgate Mall on September 22.

A woman shields a baby as a soldier stands guard inside the Westgate Mall on Saturday, September 21.

A rescue worker helps a child outside the mall.

People who had been hiding inside the mall during the gunfire flee the scene.

An armed official takes a shooting position inside the mall.

An armed official crouches on September 21.

Bodies lie on the ground inside the mall.

Men help a wounded woman outside the mall.

Officials carry an injured man in the mall.

Soldiers move up stairs inside the Westgate Mall.

Armed police leave after entering the mall. At least one suspect has been killed, a government official said. Police have said another suspected gunman has been detained at a Nairobi hospital.

Armed police take cover behind escalators as smoke fills the air. Witnesses say tear gas was thrown in the corridors.

A woman who had been hiding during the attack runs for cover after armed police enter the mall.

A body is seen on the floor inside the smoke-filled four-story mall.

An injured person is helped on arrival at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi after the attack at the upscale mall.

A soldier directs people up a stairway inside the Westgate on September 21.

An injured man is wheeled into the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi.

People run from the Westgate Mall.

A Kenyan woman is helped to safety after the masked gunmen stormed the upscale mall and sprayed gunfire on shoppers and staff.

Crowds gather outside the upscale shopping mall. The interior ministry urges Kenyans to keep off the roads near the mall so police can ensure everyone inside has been evacuated to safety.

A policeman carries a baby to safety. Authorities said multiple shooters were at the scene.

Bodies lie outside the shopping mall.

A security officer helps a wounded woman outside.

Elaine Dang of San Diego is helped to safety after the attack. The military asked local media not to televise anything live because the gunmen are watching the screens in the mall.

Paramedics treat an injured man outside the mall.

Medical personnel carry a body away.

A body lies outside the mall. Gunmen shot people outside the mall as they entered it

A woman is pulled by a shopping cart to an ambulance.

A wounded man is escorted outside the mall.

A police officer carries a baby as people keep low and run to safety. Crowds dashed down the streets as soldiers in military fatigues, guns cocked, crawled under cars to get closer to the mall.

People run away from the scene.

Armed Kenyan forces take position to secure the area around the shopping mall as ambulances move in to carry the injured.

A woman reacts after she is rescued from the mall.

A couple flee the area. As night fell, authorities said they had cornered the gunmen in the mall.

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Photos: Kenya mall attack

This photo taken Friday, September 27, shows the scene at the Dormans coffee shop on the ground floor of the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, days after an attack and siege left 67 people dead. Click through to see images of the mall after the four-day siege.

Bottles and dishes sit in the Artcaffe restaurant and coffee shop on the ground floor of the mall.

Forensic investigators work on the ground floor of the mall.

Wallets and purses sit on tables inside the Artcaffe restaurant and coffee shop.

Kenyan counter-terrorism sources have told CNN they believe Ikrima had a hand in the Westgate attack as well as a string of plots targeting Kenya in the last two years, including a plot to target Kenya's parliament in late 2011.

Storm said he first put Ikrima on the radar screen of Western intelligence in 2008 when he met him in Nairobi for the first time. In the spring of 2009 Storm met Ikrima in Nairobi again. Abdelkadir Warsame, a senior Al-Shabaab operative, had sent Ikrima to meet Storm to pick up electronic equipment for one of Al-Shabaab's leaders. What Ikrima did not know was that Storm was working for PET, MI6, and the CIA, and that tracking devices had been hidden in the equipment, which included a laptop.

The equipment, according to Storm's Al-Shabaab handlers, was for Saleh al Nabhan, one of the senior planners of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi. Several months later Nabhan was targeted and killed in a U.S. Navy SEALs operation. Storm's Al-Shabaab contacts subsequently told him they believed Nabhan had been tracked through the electronic equipment but blamed a junior courier.

After Al-Shabaab carried out a twin suicide bombing attack in Kampala, Uganda in July 2010 Ikrima told Storm it was now difficult for him to travel to meet him in Nairobi. From then on the two kept in frequent touch through encrypted emails -- which CNN has seen -- providing Western intelligence with real-time information on his movements and plans.

In early 2010 Storm connected Ikrima to Anwar al Awlaki, the American-Yemeni cleric who had by then begun overseeing al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's operations against the West. According to Storm the two then began communicating over encrypted emails. They eventually came up with a joint plan of action to attack the West: Ikrima would send Shabaab recruits, including Westerners, to Yemen for terrorist training, and they would then be sent back to Somalia or on to the West.

"And as for going to hooks [Awlaki's] place ... then i was told by hook that they want to train brothers and then send them back or to the west," Ikrima wrote to Storm in November 2010.

Storm told CNN that Ikrima helped oversee an intelligence apparatus -- "Amniyat" - Al-Shabaab set up in Kenya. "He's the main link between Somalia and the Al Hijra group back here in Kenya," one of Ikrima's former associates told CNN in Nairobi. Al Hijra is a militant outfit in Kenya closely associated with Al-Shabaab.

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Storm said that Ikrima was at the center of a spiderweb connecting terrorist operatives in Somalia, Kenya, Yemen, and the West. He said he had emerged as the chief handler of foreign fighters, including Westerners joining Al-Shabaab, placing him in a unique opportunity to plot terrorist attacks in East Africa and Europe.

His intelligence, language skills and connections appear to have now made Ikrima invaluable to Al-Shabaab. Two former friends of Ikrima -- including a former member of Al-Shabaab, told CNN he was now a strategist and planner for the group, rather than a fighter.

"He's part of the intelligence team. He speaks five languages - Norwegian, Swahili, Arabic, Somali, and English - and that puts him in a front seat with Al-Shabaab," one of his associates told CNN.

Storm and the two former associates have shed light on how a middle class Kenyan became one of the most wanted terrorists in east Africa.

Ikrima, now believed to be in his late twenties, was born in Mombasa into a middle class ethnic Somali family who also had blood links to the Al-Ansi tribe in Yemen, a connection which later helped Ikrima forge a relationship with AQAP.

The family moved to Nairobi when he was young where he excelled in his studies, especially in French and other languages. His friends remembered him as not particularly religious and fond of smoking marijuana.

He moved to Norway in 2004 apparently to seek out economic opportunities in Europe, taking advantage of the fact that his Somali ethnicity allowed him to apply for refugee status. He was granted temporary travel papers, but he never fit in, and started to become radicalized. A 2006 offensive by Ethiopian troops to rid Somalia of the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist militia that had taken control of much of the country, appears to have played a significant role.

Storm said Ikrima had told him he had joined the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia and experienced the invasion by Ethiopian troops first hand. He suspects the experience instilled in Ikrima a deep commitment to Jihad. According to his friends when he returned to Norway he was told his application for asylum had been rejected, and he moved to London for several months. In 2008 Ikrima left Europe for good and returned to east Africa.

Western counter-terorrism officials fear his reputation in Jihadist circles worldwide will be bolstered by his escape from the U.S. operation, and he may be emboldened to plot new attacks.

" Al-Shabaab will protect him to the end. They will give him bodyguards around the clock they will make sure he is safe where ever he goes in Somalia," one of the former associates of Ikrima told CNN.